[opendtv] Re: DTV Delay Bill Introduced

  • From: Tom Barry <trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:21:32 -0500



Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> So in reality-land John, there was no real DTV deadline between the fall
> of 1997 and January of 2006, when Congress passed legislation
> establishing the February 17, 2009 deadline, which added 3 years and 48
> days to the deadline originally established by the FCC.
>
Did Congress really pass that legislation? Maybe I remember wrong but I think that was the bill where the two houses of Congress passed slightly different versions and instead of resolving the differences just sent one of them (house version?) to Bush who signed it anyway. If so it is questionable whether it is really law if anyone challenged it. But I guess if everyone agrees to pretend it is law then it might as well be.
Of course if it is NOT law then the old law still applies and we are overdue for an analog shutoff. ;-) 

- Tom




At 6:53 PM -0800 1/17/09, John Willkie wrote:

The only place where there was a three-year extension of the digital
transition was in the fantasy-land in which you live, Bob.
As usual, John's uncontrollable urge to communicate using insults, is both inappropriate and WRONG.
The 1996 Telecommunications Act gave the authority to set the deadline to the FCC, which in turn set the original deadline at the end of 1996. The broadcasters were none too happy about this and immediately got their friends in Congress to make the 2006 deadline meaningless:
The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 was passed about six months after the FCC set the 2006 deadline. According to http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/piac/octmtg/tatalk.htm
The Balanced Budget Act specified that no analog broadcast license may be renewed beyond December 31, 2006. (143 Cong. Rec. H6032-H6033, adding new section 309(j)(14)(A) to the Communications Act). At the same time, Congress directed the FCC to extend that deadline in any television market:
if any ABC, NBC, CBS, or Fox affiliate in that market is not broadcasting a DTV signal, assuming that the FCC finds that the station has exercised "due diligence" in trying to deploy DTV;
if digital-to-analog converter technology is not generally available in the market; or
if 15 percent or more of the households in the market do not subscribe to a multichannel provider (e.g., cable, MMDS, DBS) that retransmits at least one digital programming service from each DTV station in that market and those households do not have a digital television set or digital-to-analog converter.
So in reality-land John, there was no real DTV deadline between the fall of 1997 and January of 2006, when Congress passed legislation establishing the February 17, 2009 deadline, which added 3 years and 48 days to the deadline originally established by the FCC. 

You can take the Tijuana Taxi back to your fantasy land now John.

Regards
Craig


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